Admission requirements
IRO-students: Participation in the seminar is only permitted if the propaedeutic phase has been passed (60 EC).
Exchange students: you don't need to have historical information on a specific topic or era, but it is expected that you have completed at least one introductory course in global or international history.
Description
‘History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes.’ Whether we can attribute this quote to Mark Twain or not, it summarises the idea behind this course succinctly. On the one hand, we should be cautious not to oversimplify what can be ‘learned’ from history. On the other hand, history does and can definitely play a role in political debates and policy making.
The aim of this seminar is to provide the students with strategies that will help them to think with history and time. In other words: How can we make history relevant to contemporary societal debates?
We will predominantly look into historical developments and events that took place during the twentieth and early twenty-first century.
This course does not focus on a predetermined set of historical developments or events. Students will have a lot of freedom to select events or developments related to international relations and organisations to work on for their assignments. More important than the topics as such is that they promise to be relevant for a contemporary issue. This relevance can be established in different ways, of which analogical reasoning and the construction of histories that explain how a contemporary situation emerged are the ones most widely applied.
Course objectives
After completing this course, students:
can work with primary and secondary sources to develop an analysis of past developments or events
can think historically
can apply strategies, such as analogies and issue histories, to connect past and present
can develop well-argued recommendations or reflections rooted in history related to current debates and present them in a way suitable for a non-academic audience
gained experience with discussing historical and perspectives on contemporary issues
Schedule
The timetables are available through MyTimetable (see the button in the upper right corner).
Teaching method
Seminars will take twice a week.
Attendance at the seminars is expected as a participation grade is part of the course.
Assessment method
The final grade for the course will consist of various elements, such as participation, a presentation with a Q&A and a group project. More detailed specifications will be available in the Syllabus.
For the graded in-class assignments and participation a minimum grade of 5.5 is required to pass the course.
In addition to the graded assignments, the course will contain several pass/ fail assignments, such as a student-led seminar. These pass/ fail assignments will be taken into account for the participation grade.
Resit, review & feedback
Resits will only be offered for assignments that constitute more than 30 % of the final grade. Please refer to the course Syllabus for details.
Reading list
For this course, you will have to acquire the following book:
Gavin, F.J. (2025). Thinking historically: A guide to statecraft and strategy. Yale University Press.
Additionally, we will use a combination of journal articles and (chapters from) books. A detailed reading list, including instructions on how to acquire the texts, will be included in the syllabus.
Registration
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website (https://www.student.universiteitleiden.nl/en/your-study-programme/courses-and-exams/enrolment/social-and-behavioural-sciences/international-relations-and-organisations-bsc?cd=international-relations-and-organisations-bsc&cf=social-and-behavioural-sciences#tab-1).
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer(s) (listed in the right information bar). For questions about enrolment, contact the Student Services Centre: ssc@leiden.edu.